My taxes + the census = not counted

I just finished filling out my tax return. Turbo tax asks cherfully if anything has changed over the last year. If I happened to be married in 2008 there is a cute little box to check next to a picture of a diamond ring. Well, yes indeed I was married in 2008, let me go ahead and check that box. OHHHHH, But wait a minute. Unless I want the government knocking down my door for fraud, I better rethink my marital status. Let's see, how does the federal government see me? Oh, right, they see me as a single person, paying taxes, ineligible for the 1,138 federal benefits for married couples. Got it! Let me put on my second-class citizen jumpsuit. Ahhh, there, now that's better. Thanks federal government for forcing me to check the single box, again, even though I really do have a wife. Maybe next year.

The 2010 census is, of course, another undertaking by the federal government, so I shouldn't expect anything different, but I do. I expect that our community and our families will be counted properly and I expect that married same-sex couples will be counted as such. The 2010 census will not meet my expectations.

"If two people of the same sex identify as husband and husband or wife and wife, the census will retain that answer, but when results are released those people will be counted as unmarried partners."

Hmmm, looks as if I will be checking the married box. If we will still be counted as unmarried partners and we are both of the same sex (so that we can be counted in other studies) I see no reason not to respond as married. Suck it, census.

Journal of a citizen